{"id":11535,"date":"2016-06-06T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=11535"},"modified":"2016-06-06T06:03:28","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T11:03:28","slug":"invisible-man-dan-mcneil-on-collision-course-with-the-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2016\/06\/06\/invisible-man-dan-mcneil-on-collision-course-with-the-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Invisible Man\u2019 Dan McNeil on collision course with The Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dan<\/a>

<\/a> Dan McNeil<\/p><\/div>\n

Following a 10-day time-out for bad behavior, veteran Chicago radio personality Dan McNeil returned to Hubbard Radio classic hits WDRV FM 97.1<\/a> on May 23. But since then, you\u2019d hardly know he\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

To listeners of the morning show he had co-hosted with Pete McMurray since March 2015, McNeil has become a nonentity. These days he turns up once an hour to deliver a straight three-minute sportscast \u2014 and that\u2019s it. He is never mentioned during the rest of the show, and he no longer interacts with McMurray or producer Scott Miller, who has assumed a larger role on the air since McNeil was cut back.<\/p>\n

With McNeil, 54, believed to be pulling down $250,000 a year, it\u2019s a cinch he\u2019s making more per minute of airtime now than anyone else in town.<\/p>\n

If Hubbard Radio is trying to get him to quit by turning him into \u201cThe Invisible Man,\u201d the strategy isn\u2019t working so far. As long as the mercurial McNeil keeps his cool and continues showing up to do his hourly sports reports, he will continue collecting his paycheck. The company could always buy out McNeil\u2019s contract and send him home, but his bosses may be reluctant to do that as long as his association with The Drive can still generate revenue.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>\u201cDan\u2019s a well-known personality in the marketplace,\u201d one insider said. \u201cHe's still worth money to us because of the advertisers and the sponsorships he brings to us. He does have a lot of people that like him in this market.\u201d<\/p>\n

To others it\u2019s clear that McNeil and The Drive are on a slow-motion collision course.<\/p>\n

The dispute became public<\/a> last month after Hubbard Radio forced out <\/a>longtime corporate programming chief Greg Solk, the Chicago radio legend credited with creating The Drive and recruiting McNeil and McMurray as the morning team. McNeil was told he couldn\u2019t talk about his friend Solk\u2019s departure on the air, sending him into a rage against program director Rob Cressman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole thing was totally unnecessary and terribly mishandled,\u201d said a witness to the hallway confrontation. \u201cIf they\u2019d just let Dan say a few words about Greg at the end of the show, probably no one would have heard it and no one would have cared. . . . They had to know it would set him off \u2014 and that\u2019s just what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The combination of McNeil\u2019s famously foul temper and his growing frustration with the direction of the show came to a head that Thursday morning, May 12. Meetings with management ensued, and McNeil was off the air the next day and the whole week after that. He also was conspicuously absent from The Drive\u2019s 15th Birthday Concert May 20 at the Rosemont Theatre, the station\u2019s premier event of the year.<\/p>\n

For once the normally talkative McNeil isn\u2019t talking. Like everyone else at The Drive, he\u2019s now under orders not to communicate with the media. While the muzzling of employees may be standard procedure for repressive companies like iHeartMedia or Cumulus Media, it\u2019s unusual for Hubbard Radio, long known for openness and honesty with the press.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

John Gallagher<\/p><\/div>\n

John Gallagher, vice president and market manager of Hubbard Radio Chicago, insisted that the \u201cno comment\u201d edict is nothing new. \u201cI tell everybody \u2014 and they've known that from the day I walked in the door \u2014 that you don\u2019t disclose internal information to anyone outside of the building about what\u2019s going on here without clearing it with management,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gallagher downplayed the issues with McNeil, saying The Drive was working on finding \u201cthe right mix of personality and music\u201d for its morning show. The personality part is down and the music part is up, he acknowledged, but that could change.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we have a golden opportunity to increase ratings on The Drive,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re gonna try some different things and do some different things to make that happen. During the experiment, the last thing I want to do is give my competitors a heads up on what we\u2019re trying to do. I\u2019d rather keep them guessing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pairing of McNeil and McMurray, two Chicago radio pros who\u2019d never worked together, was a risky proposition from the start. It marked a clear shift from the music-intensive morning show that defined the station for 14 years. \u201cThe Drive has maintained a dominant classic rock position in the market for many years,\u201d Gallagher said at the time. <\/a>\u201cThe departure of [former host] Steve Downes offered us the opportunity to reevaluate our mission and once again bring something unique to mornings.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the two metrics that matter most \u2014 revenue and ratings \u2014 it's been a bust.<\/p>\n

Last year revenue for The Drive dropped 11.2 percent to $12.1 million, the sharpest decline for any of Hubbard Radio\u2019s three Chicago stations. (Hot adult-contemporary WTMX FM 101.9 <\/a>remains the company\u2019s cash cow, with revenue up 3.1 percent to $31.8 million.)<\/p>\n

Ratings for the morning show under McNeil and McMurray have been especially disappointing. In the last Nielsen Audio survey, The Drive ranked eighth overall with a 3.4 percent share of all listeners, while mornings tied for 15th with a 2.5 share. In the target demographic of men between 25 and 54, The Drive ranked second overall with 5.0 share while mornings were ninth with a 3.6 share.<\/p>\n

A new Nielsen Audio survey, covering the period from April 21 to May 18, will be released Tuesday. Of the ratings, Gallagher said: \u201cWe\u2019re monitoring them very closely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Pete<\/a>

Pete McMurray, Dan McNeil and Scott Miller<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a 10-day time-out for bad behavior, veteran Chicago radio personality Dan McNeil returned to Hubbard Radio classic hits WDRV FM 97.1 on May 23. But since then, you\u2019d hardly know he\u2019s back. To listeners of the morning show he had co-hosted with Pete McMurray since March 2015, McNeil has become a nonentity. These days... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11535"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11549,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11535\/revisions\/11549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}